Decades of memories become family stories at Perona Farms

Photo by Daniel Freel/New Jersey Herald - Keeping the family traditions alive and making new memories are, standing, from left, Marley Avondoglio, Wade Avondoglio, Victor Avondoglio, Mark Avondoglio, Tracey Ivaldi and Bryant Avondoglio. Seated is Kirk Avondoglio. They are in front of The Barn at Perona Farms, one of the several event venues at Perona Farms. The barn, constructed in 1935, was renovated in 2012 and opened for its first wedding in 2013.

The room where the photos are stored is sunny and bright, a welcome den of quiet nestled behind a madcap kitchen. Photographs line the shelves in boxes and bins, stored alongside vintage menus and invitations to events long since past. It is a treasure trove of family memories that when strung together, paint a vivid picture of the sights and sounds of Perona Farms and all its gathered history. Here, a farmer in thick overalls herds his cows through the low-hanging door of an old barn. There, elegant patrons gather at the bar for a cocktail and a smoke while the band plays on in the background. Then, a woman smiles kindly, her children in her arms, sitting with her husband in front of a low rock wall. In this room are five generations of memories, and a million stories waiting to be told.

The helicopter

A young bride grins, clutching her veil with one hand and a bouquet of flowers with the other. She sits, carefully, in the passenger seat of a small helicopter, ready to take to the skies.

Victor Avondoglio, laughing at the memory, tells it best.

"So, we had a friend who used to shuttle people back and forth from New York and Newark and wherever else they had to go," he said. "We started offering rides for the brides and grooms so that they could head out to the airport and catch a plane for their honeymoons. It was all very elegant up in the air, but down on the ground, boy, that was the funniest thing I've ever seen."

Apparently, he said, it soon became a Perona Farms tradition for brides to throw their bouquets out of the helicopter and down to the waiting crowd below.

"We would tie these little red parachutes to the flowers, and they would float down very gently," he said. "Except, sometimes, the wind would grab it and all of the girls would start chasing it around, trying to catch it before it got stuck in a tree. Once or twice, it sailed right over into the cow field. If you have never seen a bunch of bridesmaids with their hair all done and their dresses looking so beautiful try to figure out how to scale a fence and step down into a field full of cows, you have never seen anything worth seeing. Everyone would always get a good laugh, and whichever one of the girls managed to retrieve the bouquet would really feel like she had earned it."

An American party

Once, in the mid 1970s, the family decided to host a feast for the ages. Chefs from Perona Farms traveled to different places around the country and spent a few weeks learning what they could about the local cuisine, and brought it all back home to Andover.

"The food we had that night was absolutely unbelievable," said Mark Avondoglio. "We had Cajun shrimp, we had gumbo. We had real Mexican food from Texas, we had fish from southern Florida, fresh produce from California ... I think you could smell that party before you could see it."

More than 500 guests turned out that night, decked to the nines and ready to dance the night away.

In honor of the party's "all things American" theme, pinball machines and Skee-Ball ramps were set up all around the patio.

"Jack Fairclough, for some reason or another, had an old calliope," Avondoglio said. "Every adult who was at that party had been a kid on a carousel once, and between the mountains of amazing food, and the games, and the lights that we strung up in the trees and the music that came tinkling out of that calliope, it was like being at the carnival. There was some real magic here that night."

A ribbon cutting

In 1974, Victor and Maureen Avondoglio decided it was time to expand the business to accommodate the growing demand for weddings and large events.

"We put a lot of thought into The Florentine Room," said Victor Avondoglio. "We wanted it to be something that would take people's breath away when they walked into the door. We spent a lot on it, we really did. The deal that I made with the kids was that if some of them would stay, and take it over when we couldn't do it anymore, then it would be worth every penny to make the investment for them."

After months of planning and construction, the room was ready.

"My job that afternoon was go get my great-grandfather (Emil Perona) from the house across the street and make sure that he could get to the grand opening ceremony, " Mark Avondoglio recalled. "He was in a wheelchair by then, so he didn't make it across the street as often as he once had."

"I pushed his chair through the foyer, and when he saw what he (Victor) had done, he choked up. He looked at my grandparents, and he looked at my parents, and he looked at me and he said, 'Well, nobody will beat you now.' I will never forget that moment as long as I live. He knew then that he (Victor) had really built something wonderful."

Starting young

Victor Avondoglio has a saying that his children and grandchildren are all too familiar with: There are no free lunches here.

Perhaps it is lingering spirit of Emil Perona's famous work ethic that gets his descendents up and moving at such a young age. Or, perhaps the facts of life are just a little different for the children of a family business.

"My first job was to plate all of the bread and butter for dinner," Mark Avondoglio said. "I think I was about 6 or 7. That was always the rule -- as soon as you were old enough to start getting in trouble, Mom and Dad would find something to keep you busy. I remember going out to milk cows with my grandfather when I was about the same age. I've been a busboy, a waiter, a valet, a landscaper, a bartender ... you name it."

Tracey (Avondoglio) Ivaldi said that her career began in the kitchen.

"My grandmother was a very thrifty woman," she said. "I remember that one of my first jobs around here was to help her untie these little red and white strings that came wrapped around the boxes of pastries. We had to be very careful not to break the strings, because she was very insistent that we keep them."

She paused, considering.

"Honestly, I have no idea what she did with them. I guess I never thought to ask."

One Thatched Tower, please

Every bartender and waiter has, at one point, run into that one customer who orders some fancy cocktail that no one has ever heard of.

In the 1980s, when Mark Avondoglio was working behind the bar, a frantic new waiter came up to the rail with a perplexed look on his face.

"So, this kid comes up to the bar and says he needs a Thatched Tower," Avondoglio said, laughing. "I had no idea what he was talking about. Go back and ask her what's in it, I told him. So he did."

Avondoglio said that when the waiter returned, a new favorite family story was born.

"He comes back up and he's all red and embarrassed. I asked him what had happened, and he looked at me and said, 'The lady has a lisp. She would like a Scotch Sour.' I couldn't take it. That was one of the funniest things I have ever heard."

Victor Avondoglio, throwing his hat into the ring for best bar story, said that once, a well-dressed gentleman approached him to commend the staff on the service he had received.

"We were in the middle of a busy shift," he said. "A man in a very nice suit came up and told me that he had gotten some exceptional service from one of our waitresses. I thanked him. Then I guess he couldn't hold it in any longer, and he starts laughing. 'Follow me,' he said, leading me back towards his table.

"When we got there, it took me a minute to figure out what had happened. 'I ordered a screwdriver,' the man said. 'It took her about 10 minutes to find it, but there you go. Poor girl must have thought I was crazy.' "

Avondoglio said he smiled, grabbed the flathead tool off the table, and led the man back to the bar for a drink.

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In 1907, Dr. Thomas L. Bennett incorporated the F.H. Bennett Biscuit Company in New York City. The company originally had its bakery located near the corner of Avenue D and 19th Street on the west side of Manhattan.